It's the last round-up for Mr. Boogity-Boogity-Boogity & Company, and the Fox report card is:

  Charlotte's Coke 600 is the last race of the season for Fox...and next up is NASCAR on TNT (here with L-R Kyle Busch, Marc Fein, Larry McReynolds and Kyle Petty) (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   CONCORD, N.C.
   No, the sky is not falling....but it may be raining: It's the final NASCAR race of the season for Fox, and it comes on mixed notes about the economic state of the sport of stock car racing.
   So this may be a day of reflection, in more ways than one.
   This may be one of the most critical days of the year for the sport....with ABC's Indy 500 and Fox's Charlotte 600 double-header on Memorial Day weekend.
   The world of stock car racing may well be hoping for an exciting lead-in show.
   Yes, we're only 13 races into the 36-race season, but the spring part of the tour is typically strong, much stronger than the fall (despite the September-October-November championship playoffs).  
   And, yes, the racing itself is much better, with 'Boys, have at it,' and drivers 'self-policing' themselves, and double-file restarts, and triple green-white-checkers.
   But the sport dug itself into a hole the very first race, with that two-hour delay to fix a pothole at Daytona, and scheduling head-to-head with the Winter Olympics, which led to weak TV numbers (a 7.7 rating, lowest in years).
   A particularly worrisome number for TV men – and NASCAR execs too – is the somewhat surprising drop in the demographic part of the picture that covers men from 18-to-34. Fox says that segment is off nearly 30 percent from last spring.
   Why....and where did they all go?
   Good questions. (Wonder if any of the guys in the TV booth will man-up and discuss them.)
   Ironically some of the hottest drivers in the sport are Kyle Busch, 25; Denny Hamlin, 29; Joey Logano, just-turned-20; Jimmie Johnson, 34; and Kevin Harvick, 34; and Kurt Busch, 31. And Carl Edwards, though on a cold streak right now, is just 30.
   Certainly some clear role models there.
   To consider:
   -- At this point in the 2008 season, NASCAR's Cup events were averaging 10 million viewers each, with an average 6.1 rating.
   -- At this point in 2009, going into the 600, the numbers were 8.9 million a race, and a 5.4 average.
   -- This spring it looks like Fox will wind up averaging a viewing audience of about eight million...and, ignoring the Martinsville and Texas Monday events, the ratings so far are about 4.9 on average.

   Maybe some of these races are just too long.
   Daytona (not counting the pothole timeout) at 3:47.
   California at 3:31.
   Las Vegas at 2:49.
   Atlanta at 3:59.
   Bristol at 3:20.
   Martinsville at 3:39.
   Phoenix at 3:48.
   Texas at 3:25.
   Talladega at 3:31.
   Richmond at 3:00.
   Darlington at 3:57.
   Dover at 3:06.

   And now Charlotte's Coke 600....which still ran 2:49 last year, despite being cut by rain at just past the halfway mark. The race record here is 3:57; but in 2005 the 600 dragged on for 5:14.

    Is it just the state of the world in general....or the economy still?
    Maybe the rain at Martinsville and Texas were big bummers. Maybe Fox's coverage is part of the problem: Is there enough cross-promotion? Is TV really measuring the issue, or just aggravating things?
    But the All-Star crowd here was a solid 100,000. And yet Speed's own TV ratings of the event were a weak 2.3. That followed Fox' Dover 400 ratings of a weak 3.7, the network's lowest ever Sunday afternoon NASCAR numbers. (NASCAR's All-Star race did beat the NHL's 1.6, but ESPN's NBA game pulled a 4.4, and Fox' MLB game a 3.6.)
    Are things turning around, just slowly, or do NASCAR and its team owners need to do something more? Certainly doesn't look like Jimmie Johnson needs to shoulder much of the blame lately, given the surge by rivals Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.
    So....what else could be done?

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   Fox' Darrell Waltrip: one last 'Boogity! Boogity! Boogity!' (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)